Alfonso Camacho plays at the Estrella del Mercado, which mixes retail and office space among its 92 rental units.

Rachel Ortiz, executive director of Barrio Station, took a big gulp this month as she helped open the first phase of the $62.3 million Mercado del Barrio project in the shadow of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

Barrio Logan has been trying to find a new heart since the construction of Interstate 5 in the 1950s and the bridge in the 1960s divided the community and destroyed its residential and commercial unity.

Previous attempts stumbled before the current project came to pass. The secret to success this time, said developer Jim Schmid of Chelsea Investment, was, “We worked with the whole community.”

Mercado del Barrio occupies 6.8 acres on two city blocks, bounded by Main Street, Cesar Chavez Parkway, National Avenue and Chicano Park.

The north block, budgeted at nearly $44 million, contains the 92-unit Estrella del Mercado apartments, 1985 National Ave. It’s a one-story retail and office building mixed in with apartments.

The south block includes a 41,000-square-foot Northgate Gonzalez Market, due to open next month, and a 14,000-square-foot retail building.

A large plaza and Newton Street will host street fairs, farmer’s markets, vendor carts and special events.

The rent-restricted apartments are available to renters with no more than 60 percent of area median income, about $49,560 for a family of four.

That fits the profile of Julia Villatoro, 22, who lives with her mother, Aurora Perez, and sister, Roselia Sanchez, 10.

Villatoro takes the bus to work at her food services job at SeaWorld and classes at City College. She and her mother pay $583 a month for the one-bedroom unit, which is less than the studio apartment the trio occupied earlier.

“It’s new, it’s a secure place — there are always security guards,” she said.

Her apartment has a small balcony looking east toward Chicano Park. Other units have views to the bay and downtown.

The community room offers Internet access, and Roselia can play with other children in the playground built on top of the open-air parking garage tucked inside the development.

Villatoro said she hopes to live at the Mercado as long as possible. “We’re not planning on moving,” she said.

Property manager Luzmila Linan said about 1,200 people initially applied to rent at the project.

At almost $400,000 per unit, the apartments cost more than the median-priced, for-sale home in San Diego, priced at $350,000 in October.

But Jerry Lohla, portfolio management director at the San Diego Housing Commission, which helped finance the project, said the homes are better built than market-rate housing.

“We have a lot of energy efficiency built in,” he said. “We build everything at prevailing wages. We get good quality — but it is expensive.”

Debbie Ruane, the commission’s senior vice president in the real estate department, said she still considers the project a “wonderful development model” because of its incorporation of several uses and access to neighborhood services and transit.

“We would love to see it mirrored in other parts of the city,” she said.

But Chelsea’s Schmid said unless new funding for affordable housing projects becomes available, a similar project is unlikely anytime soon.